1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate processing system including a substrate processing apparatus operating according to a recipe defining process sequences and process conditions and a group managing apparatus connected to the substrate processing apparatus, and a method of analyzing an abnormal state of the substrate processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a substrate processing apparatus operating according to a recipe defining process sequences and conditions, data (for example, time-series data such as temperatures, gas mass flows, and pressures) indicating recipe progress states and states of the substrate processing apparatus are generated at a plurality of parts (such as a temperature sensor, a gas mass flow meter, and a pressure gauge; hereinafter, these parts will be referred to as data generating parts. If the recipe is abnormally executed or the state of the substrate processing apparatus is abnormal, a maintenance engineer of the substrate processing apparatus hears information such as “abnormal state information”, “substrate processing apparatus information”, and “abnormal state occurring time” from an user of the substrate processing apparatus, and the maintenance engineer checks data of the substrate processing apparatus based on the information so as to analyze a cause of the abnormal state (hereinafter, analysis of a cause of an abnormal state will be referred to as an abnormal state analysis).
However, since there are many candidate items to be checked, abnormal state analysis may be incorrectly carried out or it may take much time to analyze the abnormal state according to the skill of the maintenance engineer. For example, after a thin film forming recipe is executed on a substrate, if there is an abnormal state such as “decrease in the in-surface uniformity of a thin film”, a plurality of check items such as the inside temperature (process temperature) of a process chamber in which the substrate is accommodated, the mass flow of gas supplied into the process chamber, and the inside pressure of the process chamber can be candidate check items. Therefore, according to the skill of the maintenance engineer, some of necessary check items may not be checked, and thus abnormal state analysis may be incorrectly conducted. In addition, according to the skill of the maintenance engineer, unnecessary items may be checked, and thus time may be wasted.
In addition, although the skill of the maintenance engineer is fairly good, it may take a long time for the maintenance engineer to collect necessary data according to check items. For example, if it is necessary to check the difference between data (for example, process temperature or pressure) of the abnormal substrate processing apparatus and data of another substrate processing apparatus, the maintenance engineer may have to collect predetermined data from the abnormal substrate processing apparatus while collecting corresponding data from the other substrate processing apparatus. Therefore, if the other substrate processing apparatus is distant from the abnormal substrate processing apparatus or it is necessary to collect a large amount of data, it may take significant time to analyze the abnormal state.